Thursday, November 4, 2010

Last week I talked about blog content and gave some tips to keep in mind when you sit down to write. What seemed to resonate in the comments was my point on voice and keeping what you write authentic.

Be Who You Are

Maybe I should have made this my first point. It seems so obvious to me, but I forget that it’s not that cut and dry for everyone. Writing a blog that people come back to again and again may seem like luck, but think of the blogs you read over and over again. There’s something about the way the person behind the blog expresses themselves and what ideas and stories they choose to share that keeps you riveted. It is their authentic voice, the one they couldn’t hide if they tried.

What Do You Want From Blogging?

Now here’s where I say BUT... To me an equally important thing to remember is your goal. Why did you start to write this blog in the first place, what did you hope it would do for your business? This too is part of being authentic. If you started your blog to drive sales, yet all you write about or want to write about is the other great artists that inspire you, you’re going to get frustrated. Be honest with yourself and with your readers. You either need to craft your content to help you reach your goals or you need to take a serious look at your intentions.

There are ways that you can continue to write about inspiration and still support the effort build sales, but then that isn’t the purpose of your blog.

Setting Those Goals

What I recommend is setting SMART goals. That stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic or Relevant, and Time frame. For instance setting a goal of getting more Facebook fans isn’t enough, but saying that you want 10 new Facebook fans every two weeks, now that’s a SMART goal. You’ve made it specific, 10 fans, realistic and attainable within a specific time frame, every two weeks, and you can easily measure it by looking at your fan page statistics. These goals can be quick easy goals or longer term as long as you put a time frame to them. Keep making new ones as you reach the goals you’ve set and feel free to change the on-going ones. Maybe you’ve been working at getting new Facebook fans for a few months and now you have 500 hundred, a nice solid number. But maybe they’re not as active as you’d like. Your new goal could be to get one fan to repost every blog article you write.

Putting It All Together

Keeping in mind that you should be writing in a voice that’s true to you, what would you do to reach your goals? Be creative here, this is what sets you apart and keeps readers coming back.

For the goal of getting new Facebook fans, maybe it’s as simple as asking. At then end of your posts you could say, “Like us on Facebook to get behind the scenes gossip.” However maybe you’re more a fan of challenges. Tell your readers that if they encourage their friends to become a fan and then post the name of the person who referred them, you’ll give a prize to the person who referred the most new fans.

I’m sure you can come up with your own creative way to reach all your goals.

I encourage comments directly to this post, but also feel free to email me directly with questions, reactions, struggles, etc. genevieve@lightboxsf.com